Sheets outduels Willis; Hardy homers in Brewers win

Jun 3, 2007 - 11:39 PM
MILWAUKEE (Ticker) -- Ben Sheets pitched six scoreless innings
and outdueled Dontrelle Willis as the Milwaukee Brewers posted a
3-0 victory over the Florida Marlins on Sunday to take three
off our in the weekend series.

Prince Fielder, J.J. Hardy and Johnny Estrada drove in runs for
the Brewers, who won a series for the first time in their last
seven.

The National League Central Division-leading Brewers' last
series win was a three-game sweep over the Washington Nationals
at home May 7-9.

"It was a big series win, especially right before the Cubbies
come," said Hardy, referring to a three-game series with the
Chicago Cubs that starts Monday.

Sheets (6-3) allowed seven hits and a walk and struck out seven
to record his fourth win in his last five starts.

"It was a good day," Sheets said. "I was working hard. It was
tough work. They are good hitters. I'm on a pretty good roll,
but we won a series and hopefully that carries over for us and
we get on a series roll again."

Sheets left the game after just six innings do to fatigue. He
had thrown 99 pitches, including 69 strikes.

"I can count on one hand being gassed, today was one of them,"
Sheets said. "When they shut the (outfield) panels, it was stiff
and muggy in here. For the few innings it was shut, it took
its toll. Somedays you get out of it no problem if you have
easy innings, but none of my innings were easy."

Carlos Villanueva worked the seventh, Derrick Turnbow logged the
eighth and Francisco Cordero pitched a perfect ninth for his
21st save in as many chances this season.

"It was really good pitching all the way around," Brewers
manager Ned Yost said. "Benny gave us six strong innings, the
bullpen was great, and we beat a pretty good pitcher in Willis."

The Marlins had runners in scoring position in every inning from
the second through eighth but could not scratch out a run.

"You've got to give credit to them to, making the right pitch at
the right time in big situations," Marlins manager Fredi
Gonzalez said.

Sheets worked just one 1-2-3 inning, but managed to keep the
Marlins off the scoreboard. In the fourth, he allowed
consecutive line-drive singles to Miguel Cabrera and Josh
Willingham to lead off the inning, and then retired the next
three batters on fly balls.

"Sheets was great today," Willis said. "A game like that,
everything fell their way. We had him on the ropes a couple of
times and he was able to pitch out of it. That's a sign of a
guy that can deal with adversity. I feel like I'm that same
guy. I really like his resilience. I've always been a fan of
his."

Since the Brewers swept the Nationals, Sheets has won four
times, equaling the same number of wins from the rest of the
Brewers staff.

Corey Hart led off the Brewers half of the first inning with a
walked and eventually scored on Fielder's RBI single to right.

Rookie Ryan Braun led off the third with a double, advanced to
third on a wild pitch and scored on a one-out single to left by
Estrada.

"It wasn't Dontrelle's best, but he battled," Gonzalez said. "A
couple ground balls right at people, and we'd still be playing."

Hardy greeted Florida reliever Henry Owens with his 16th home
run of the season in the seventh. Hardy said it was just the
second home run of his professional career that he could
remember going to right field, and first this season.

"The (opposite field) power surprises me," Hardy said. "I don't
know where that came from. They've been throwing the ball away
a lot and that's all I can do (with the pitch). I don't know
how that happened."

Willis (7-4) struggled all afternoon, yielding seven hits, six
walks and two runs in six innings. He did not strike out a
batter for the first time this season.

"Today, I didn't feel like I was losing any confidence," Willis
said. "I felt if I could make a pitch I could get out of it,
especially in the fourth, fifth and sixth innings when I slowed
the game down."